Onward

2010 was a frighteningly full year. I'll be doing some recapping soon of my favorite things of the year over at Big Other. I will, of course, post links when those go up.

There was the hard/exhausting/etc: getting laid off, being unemployed, applying for 400 jobs, moving. Having numerous health problems, including a tumor the size of a baseball out of nowhere (which thankfully turned out to be benign). Dealing with migraines on a near-daily basis.

There was the awesome: finding a new job (albeit a soul-sucking one). releasing ADP's first book in January and going on to do 2 issues of Sententia, and a second book with the press. Designing a few books, having a few things published. Getting my novel accepted for publication, while at AWP no less. Having my first chapbook come out.

I've always been a daydreamer, but it's balanced out by my pessimism and realism. But I'm looking forward to 2011. 2010 was too hard, I have to believe 2011 will be a little easier. Here's to the end of a year that saw a theme park amount of ups and downs. Here's to a new year on which to pin hopes.

I'll be kicking off the new year in a few weeks by reading at Powell's with Paula Bomer:



I'm choosing to believe that starting the new year in this fashion will be a harbinger of goodness for the rest of the year. For all of us.

Newness

I went AWOL for the Holidays! Yay!

I'm breaking that to spread news of a new story up today at Metazen. The story is called "Pubes." I wrote it after reading Lindsay Hunter's Daddy's. My goal was to write a story that would date one of hers. An homage if you will. READ IT!

Last Minute Gift Ideas

The good people over at Metazen asked me and a slew of other writers to come up with some last minute literary gift ideas. I took the opportunity to rep some recent favorites, including Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories, Shya Scanlon's Forecast, and chapbooks by Hosho McCreesh and Kat Dixon. READ IT HERE!

Speaking of Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories, the flood of praise and press continues with Poets & Writers including it in their segment titled, Page One: Where New & Noteworthy Books Begin. CHECK IT OUT!

In Memoriam

On Sunday, my faithful laptop of 3 1/2 years died. It was a sad day. I bought the laptop after working in the Arctic. Some of you may remember over a year ago when the hard drive died just days before my MFA thesis presentation. In that tragedy I lost hundreds of poems and stories and photographs and more. This time I lost a writing companion. Since the tragedy of '09 I had at least learned to faithfully back up my computer.

When Laptop died his hard drive was named Rubber Soul III. II had been the hard drive that died in '09 and the original Rubber Soul was my desktop computer. Laptop and I wrote many things together, designed many things, and spent countless hours on the internet together. Before my wife and I married and we lived 5 hours away from one another I used Laptop to talk to her.

This is what Laptop looked like at the end:



Because so much of what I do relies on having a computer I replaced Laptop Sunday night. Because I don't have $, new Laptop went on a credit card. New Laptop is purty and shiny, but old Laptop will be missed. When old Laptop's lining cracked it exposed its innards, resulting in me receiving small electrical shocks when I'd hold him incorrectly. New laptop does not electrocute me. Hoping for better luck with new Laptop I have named his hard drive, Polythene Pam. Yes, I'm that much of a Beatles nerd.

So, here's to old Laptop, 3 1/2 years as my writing buddy wasn't enough. You died before your time.

The Manuscript Graveyard or Where Do We Go From Here?

So, what happens when we run out of places to send our manuscripts?

The only way I know to write about my writing is to try and relate my apparent neuroses. With my Alaska-based story collection out to only a few presses anymore I'm faced with a reality that this may not be happening. I've faced this before. We all have. I guess I just don't know what other writers do at this point? I have multiple manuscripts that just sit on my hard drive collecting virtual dust. The difference with this one? Well, I'm pretty convinced it's the best thing I've done. And that I may not be able to top it. At least not any time soon. It's received some nice comments along the way from editors, but in some regard that's kind of like asking a girl out and having her tell you that she likes you but doesn't "like" like you.

I'm not talking just to talk, I'm wondering what to do at this point in a so-called writing career. To be honest my writing time has shrunk quite a bit in the last seven or eight months. Even when I start something now I don't have that feeling of "this can and will be finished" that I used to get when starting a project.

I think I've mentioned before that for this collection I didn't pull any punches. I took the longshot of querying agents, and when that predictably turned up no interest, I submitted to about 25 presses. There are 4 left that I've yet to hear from. At least one of which I think is at least a decent possibility, but I tend to be a pretty bad predictor of that sort of thing.

And then what?

There are the writerly platitudes, the "keep writing" variety, the "write for yourself" variety. Both of which I subscribe to. To a certain degree. Nothing's going to stop me from writing. Even now with less time I've still been writing, it's just been poetry and snippets of stories. And I don't think about publication when writing, or about readers. I think about pleasing my own aesthetic, about creating something meaningful to the best of my ability. But there's also a point where writers have to admit that when the writing's done publication is the next thing to think about. If you are a writer and not just someone with a hobby, you need that interest. Not just to fulfill an ego, but to fill out the portrait, to complete the cycle of what you are doing in the first place.

Most Awesome

Paula Bomer's Baby & Other Stories is mentioned in the new issue of O! (Oprah's magazine). It's #1 on their "10 Titles to Pick Up Now" list. Massively awesome. You can even see the spine there in the picture (the first one on the left). Her book is higher on the list than the new Barry Hannah. Boo-Ya!




Also, Thunderclap Press released their latest chapbook today, Adam Moorad's I Went to the Desert. CHECK IT OUT! I designed the cover:

A Couple More

First up, I reviewed a book. It's called The Whale Chaser. And the review is up at The Nervous Breakdown. The Nervous Breakdown! This may be the last time anyone asks me to review a book, so go READ IT!

Secondly, the Understanding Campaign is one of my favorite things. Seriously. They post art inspired by the movement and I did a little thing for them. CHECK IT OUT.

Here's one of the outtakes of photographs I took for that project:

Morsels

I found out the other day that my immediate boss at work is younger than me. This prompted me to think: when the heck did I become the old guy with the boss who is younger than him. I feel old.

I'm excited because last night I delivered some new ADP stuff to Powell's. They are also now stocking my poetry chapbook, Aquarium!

Here's the link to their listing of Rose Hunter's To The River

and the one for Aquarium

I had more stuff I was going to say, but I don't remember what it was.

I have become (more) obsessed with side 2 of The Beatles' Abbey Road. I'm thinking about writing an essay about it.

Amore

The new issue of Thunderclap! Magazine is out! It's a fatty issue full of love. Seriously. That's the theme. It's the Love Issue! And it's got work by some of my favorite people/writers: Roxane Gay, Molly Gaudry, and Kat Dixon. Not to mention a billion other folks. I also happen to have three poems in it. Including one of my newer poems from the recent influx of poetry. I also happened to design the cover, which looks like a really badass Kindergarten Valentine card:



GO BUY SOME LOVE!

The Femme Fatale issue (which I also designed) is also on sale for a limited time. BUY THAT ONE TOO!